Night of the Tsunami.
Hi people, Anthony here. Sorry I haven’t written anything in a while but I’ve been flat out fishing since September. Lee’s been badgering me for ages to tell you about the near death flooding incident that happened last year, so here goes.
It happened last spring on our long awaited, first session on Hams Hall pool. Let me paint the picture. Hams is a small gravel pit situated in the Tame Valley, not far from Coleshill, Birmingham. Myself and Steve secured a membership earlier in the year and had been buzzing for the ticket to start. It is positioned on the flood plain at the point where the River Blythe and Tame meet and the River Cole is within 600 yards too. Have a look at the satellite image I’ve got and you’ll see what I mean.
I remember a mate telling me about the floods over there a few times, but he never encountered anything too serious. He was always more bothered about the mozzies that were rife, especially when it rained. He did tell me an old myth about some lads needing to get air lifted off in the middle of the night during a flood years ago. This was like I say; only a myth and we both said surely you’d see it coming. It would need to rain like crazy for 24 hours before the river breached the bunds and affected the lake. Well, so we thought.
We arrived for our first ever session on the lake full of excitement and the buzz of fishing a new lake was electric. It was late when we got there and nobody was fishing. A few hours were spent sorting bits and bobs out and watching the water to try and spot some crashing fish. We 
ended up seeing a few small Carp show right at the far end and chose to start there. It was getting late so a couple of rods were dropped close to the showing fish, and I set up camp and had a few brews. I hit the sack about midnight or just before because I wanted to be up at first light to try and spot some fish again.
The first full day dawned beautifully, but by breakfast some very ominous looking clouds started to roll in. A steady persistent rain started about 11am, and most of the afternoon was spent bivvie bound, drinking tea and chatting to Steve about the campaign for the spring.
It was about 5pm by now and the rain was still falling, it was as though the rain drops were getting bigger, and with no wind it didn’t sound too noticeable until now. Steve was first to mention it and suggested checking the river. I said Na, and laughed. It’s not been raining long enough to seriously affect the River; it isn’t worth getting wet for. Uneasy about it he went to check anyway. He returned 5 mins later and like expected, it was at normal level just slightly coloured. Sweet. Get the kettle on son. 
The next thing I knew my left hand rod was screaming off. When I struck I thought I’d missed it, I reeled in and the next thing you know a small 4lb mirror stated banging about under the rod tip. Well happy, first one, be it a stocky Carp. I didn’t really think I’d catch an original on my first trip anyway. I recast the rod to the spot and got a bit of bait out too. I’d gone out in my fleece and got soaked so I recast the other rods before I got changed into the spare clothes and waterproofs.
Now fully dark and about 7pm feeling confident about the fishing, I’d almost forgot about the rain. Steve came over with some grub and we carried on chatting about the 40lb Common Carp and other mythical beasts that live in this lake. The conversation soon got back to the weather and ste had again got the urge to check the river. I spent a lot of time on the Rivers in the past and thought I knew the score, and tried to tell him to chill. The rain hadn’t got any heavier it just seemed like normal steady rain.
Eventually he got the better of me and I got talked into going to have a look. I took my head torch and clambered to the river to check. You go up a sort of hill and look down on it. It looked slightly more swirly than usual but not in anyway threatening. I got back to the bivvie and put the kettle on and once again the chat was back to Carp fishing.
An hour or so later, about 8.30 the rain water started getting a lot more noticeable around the swims. It was building up around the paths at the back and I was starting to regret where I positioned my bivvie. One of the corners was in a dip and the groundsheet was floating in a puddle. I sorted it all out and was once again I was sipping tea and happy.
At about 9.30 the conversation was broken by a phone call. It was Dave, the guy who organised the fishing down there. He has a flood alert linked to his phone and rang in any members who were fishing to tell them it had triggered. He said he gets about 10 or so a year but they very rarely affect the lake. He also told me that the car park is the first place to flood, so move your car up the entrance path to higher ground just to be on the safe side. Cool I said. I went for a quick check of the river and all still looked sound. The rain was really lashing it down when I checked that time. I thought I’ll wait till last thing to move the car and ran back to the bivvie. The waterproofs were towled down and to be honest, I w.jpg)
as feeling a bit twitchy about it now. The rain was really giving it some and I couldn’t be bothered getting soaked to move the car, so on went the teas.
The kettle went on a further 3 times over the next hour, and I started to feel a bit tired. My plan was to run to the car, quickly check the river on the way, run back and kick off all the wets and get into the bag. I told ste to listen out for my rods and off I went. I got to the river and couldn’t believe my eyes. It had risen over 4ft in the hour. It was a scary sight. It had picked up loads of debris and some pretty big stuff was floating down. I ran back to ste and told him. We need to get out of here!
The rods were reeled in and we made the decision to take some stuff straight to the car because we didn’t have a barrow. We got halfway around the lake and we could hear the sound of running water. We carried on around the corner and the field to the left of the lake was full to the brim, it had just started pouring into the lake over the bunds. It was a truly haunting sight. We hurried through the few inch’s of flowing water until we finally got to the car. The few bits of kit were thrown in and I drove it up to the highest spot. I got out and could hear this noise again. Worriedly I walked along the track towards the gate and it got louder. I was met with a full on river where the gate used to be.
Instantly I knew this was serious, we were trapped. We ran back to lake level and noticed the far end of the car park was breaching too. The few inches that we earlier waded through were now welly deep. We got to the bivvies and packed up just the main items and made a run for it back to the car. The bivvies were still standing, mats, nets all thrown in and the door zipped up. I put my waders on but unfortunately, ste didn’t have any and the water was knee high trying to get back to the car. The soaked tackle was loaded in to the boot and all we could do sit and pray.
The car park was now underwater and the rate it was rising was frightening. The steady flow of water had turned into a roaring torrent, the sound was scary. There was a bench in the car park that was acting as a bit of a depth marker and when that disappeared under, in less than an hour I was genuinely shitting myself. We were stranded on the highest point, on a track / hill 40 yards long and it was getting smaller by the second. It was like survival kicked in, it was mad but we knew we had to forget the tackle and car and get out. The rate it was rising we had about a half hour left. It doesn’t take much to wash a car away. That was the plan then, wade for our lives, get to solid ground and call a taxi.
We took off any unnecessary items of bulky clothing, packed a waterproof bag with some dry clothes for after, and went for it. As we got to waist height the gate came into view. Just the top and the barbed wire was visible. The main flow of the floodwater was around the gate, so it was something to hold on to. We managed to get through ok. When we got over the gate it was apparent that the whole access road was under water. Luckily the flow was behind us and we managed to wade at chest height along it. We were wading for a good 100 yards until it started getting shallower. Seemed like an eternity. Finally on to dry land we walked up to the businesses park and phoned for a taxi. We had the lorry drivers beeping at us as we were getting changed under a lamppost. What must they have thought? The taxi driver thought we were a couple of fruit cakes too. We were safe that’s the main thing.
We stayed up till morning hoping the car and kit was ok. My mum took us to try and recover anything at about 10 but it was still too deep. Around 2 in afternoon we got a lift back and managed to get in. Thankfully the car was ok; the water had been up to the wheels. There was a visible waterline was on every tyre and my brakes were unusable.
(Taken from the mobile phone video)
As for the bivvies they held tight. I’ve got a video from that morning. You can see just the tops of the bivvies showing in 4ft of water. It’s mad. Unfortunately I’ve only a few pics from this particular flood. I’ll get the video on the site ASAP. It speaks for its self.
That was a serious lesson we learned that night! Later on in the summer some of the worst floods to ever hit our area struck with little or no warning. Businesses and roads were affected and a lot of people’s lives were at risk on one occasion. We never got caught out again though. We got crowned with the name Tsunami Twins. Good ole Hams.
That about ends it, hope you enjoyed.
Safe, Anthony Bahnik The Burping Angler.
(Flirting with Mother Nature later in the year)